Scattered Feathers
by Eternal Longing
Summary: The beginning of it all, all that will soon end by the hands of four wayworn travellers searching for another piece, another part of a greater whole. The end of the beginning, in the future where fate will decree its final message are Scattered Feathers.


**Tsubasa Chronicles: Scattered Feathers **

"Watanuki!" Yuko called into the house from her lounging position on the porch, "More sake!"

"More sake!" Larg echoed happily. The black Mokona's eyes, ever in their happily curved shape stared at the full moon as he ordered his favorite human for more of the beverage he loved even more. Along with the chance for more sake, Mokona had decided to sit there moon and stargazing alongside Yuko to keep her company.

"Hai...!" a halfhearted reply came from inside the elderly, archaic style shop where their 'slave' ill-naturedly worked, annoyed at the unreasonable demands Yuko and Mokona demanded as a team. "Who drinks ten bottles of sake in one night?" he grumbled to himself.

Walking the bottles over to its requestor, Watanuki grumbled a response to their overenthusiastic thanks and left the shop for the day, calling out that he had homework that had to be done. "Have a safe trip," Maru and Moro called out synchronously as he took one step outside.

The stars twinkled gently shining through the brighter moonlight, an ocean of fallen glitter like the countless grains of sand in a desert that can't be gathered up no matter how hard the undertaker tries.

Yuko broke the silence immediately after it began (the second the front door closed and the cries of farewell had died away). "Fate has decreed that today is the day we have been waiting for," Yuko began. She stood up nimbly, smoothly, and gracefully despite all the alcohol she had downed with Mokona that night. "Larg, go fetch your brother, the beginning of the end starts now…"

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"Sakura!" Syaoran called out as the ground split in half under the Princess' feet and her body started to drop down into the dark abyss. His worries were alleviated only slightly when her body suddenly stopped its downward movement and started to hover in place. Gathering the breath to shout again, his voice caught in his throat as beautiful translucent wings sprouted from her back, lifting her up into the air high above the fathomless pit. Above his head she hovered, eyes wide open yet unseeing. Despite the nature of the predicament, Syaoran could not help but admire his heart's love in this wondrous display of the unknown, her auburn hair shifting in a nonexistent wind, her emerald eyes clear and bright, and her newfound wings, a kaleidoscope of shimmering colors that never stayed the same for even a fraction of a second, painting a mosaic of diversity within its sharply defined edges.

Then, he noticed Sakura's rapid lateral movement towards the wall. Without thinking, he rushed towards her until he reached the wall. It was not close enough for his purposes and he had to act quickly. Grabbing hold of a jutting stone, he pulled himself upwards to another hand hold and used his momentum to leap upwards, grabbing another jutting feature of the wall. Changing his former handholds to footholds, he reached up for the next jagged stone and glanced over at Sakura to see her slim form sink sideways into the solid stone. Urging his already tired body forward, Syaoran ignored the warm, red liquid that ran down his palms as the rough, sharp stone gouged into his flesh.

He soon found that his quick pace was not quick enough, learning of his slowness with another quick glance at his Princess. The tips were the only part of her wings that was showing, the rest of her back and tendrils of her hair already fully immersed into the stone. Not only was his speed not enough, it was hopeless as hundreds of snake-like tendrils suddenly erupted outwards from the same wall to wrap around her body, dragging her into the unknown realm that had let her captors past into his own. Syaoran found that he couldn't take it anymore.

Despite his enemies' unknown nature, he continued his scaling motion and recklessly quickened his pace even more until he was close enough to clearly see her features in sharp detail. A small frown darkened her face despite the glowing wings' illumination and her eyes were as empty as ones made of glass. With one more cry of her name, he leaped high into the air from his precarious position on the wall and grabbed Sakura with both of his arms, ripping her from the wall and pulling her close to his body in a tight embrace.

They hit the floor heavily, Syaoran shielding the girl with his own body. Their travel along the floor as they skid unmercifully drove the breath from his already tired lungs, their momentum sending the two skidding rubbing raw the exposed skin of Syaoran's arms and scraping his elbow at the impact of resulting from his jump.

He sat up and shook his head to clear his blurry vision. What lay before his sight shocked him more than all the events before. Light brighter than anything that could be produced in his world exploded into his vision, momentarily blinding him yet strangely leaving him with his sight intact and a scene more foreboding than anything he had ever seen in his life. Feathers with strange markings flew from Sakura's back where her unworldly wings had once been. Their trajectory consisted of 'up' and 'out,' streaming through the stone ceiling like an arrow through air, cutting through it without leaving a mark. Within moments, hundreds if not thousands of feathers had disappeared like lightning; there one second, gone the next.

In the aftermath of the event, what remained of Sakura's beautiful wings lay in tatters with holes among the arcing outline of the remaining feathers. Within moments, those disappeared too, disappearing with promises that they were not gone for good, leaving behind faint glowing copies with rainbow colors that also faded away like the originals.

"Sakura! Sakura!" he called out, trying to wake the maiden from her enchanted sleep to no avail. "She's getting colder," he said out loud in his panic, "We have to get outside!" As Syaoran's boots echoed off the ground, a desperate race began to find and save the one that filled his heart with warmth, sacrificing everything he held dear in exchange for her life…

Yet… the ramifications of the scattering of Princess Sakura's feathers were not only for her prince, but for the many others whom the dark taint of power would touch through her magnificently deadly feathers.

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**Notes: **This is the simple prologue for the Fanfics I am writing for Tsubasa Chronicles, and its crossovers with Ouran High School Host Club, Card Captor Sakura, and possibly Fruits Basket and/or xxxHolic. This is for the purpose of setting up a background for my future Fics and if you do not feel like reviewing but feel obligated to, feel free to do whatever you want. I do welcome inspirational comments but for those who feel that this might be taking up space or is useless, please do not voice your comments and instead just find another story to read. Thank you for being understanding.

**Disclaimer: **Tsubasa Chronicles, xxxHolic, and their characters are all not the property of Eternal-Longing but of CLAMP. Thank you, ladies of CLAMP, for producing such wonderful stories.

And I'll end on that note.


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